* ''Franchise/{{Bionicle}}'':** With regards to the sets: originally sold under the LEGO Technic title as opposed to having its own, the sets were built around certain action-based gimmicks and put a lot of emphasis on the importance of collectible items, like masks. Their gear structures were at times complicated to build, and the figures suffered from limited articulation and very blocky aesthetics. A stark contrast to the modern, highly articulated, streamlined and skinny (and at times organic-looking) action figures that come with projectile weapons instead of collectibles, and are easier to build.** Storyline-wise: imaginative setting but a painfully basic, linear plot, focusing mostly on the [[MonsterOfTheWeek monster of the year]] and [[GottaCatchThemAll collecting the current items of importance]]. No secretive organizations or scheming murderers, barely any sci-fi but a lot of talk about mystical prophecies and legends, and the character personalities are little more than stereotypes. Almost the exact opposite of what it has turned into since the beginning -- numerous, decidedly non-straightforward and non-generic plotlines, but in exchange it is very hard to get a sense of atmosphere due to all the differently-toned stories and the constant shifting between settings.** According to a quote from the story writer, this initial weirdness was one of the key reasons why the line didn't receive a movie at its debut. The first year's story was apparently stuck in an indecisive middle-point between the early and bizarre "''[[WorkingTitle Doo Heads]]''" concepts and what it eventually settled on.* Creator/{{LEGO}} itself didn't have normal bricks in green or brown when it started, because even the ''option'' to build anything substantial out of camouflage colors was seen as encouraging violence.* The mini-comics included with the first few waves of ''Franchise/MastersOfTheUniverse'' action figures painted a very different mythos than that which would be established later by the DC comic books and the animated series. He-Man didn't have a secret identity and was a Literature/{{Tarzan}}-esque jungle man rather than the prince of Eternia, and he predominately used his axe in combat - the Power Sword was merely a {{Macguffin}} that could be used to unlock the door of Castle Greyskull. He-Man and Skeletor each owned one half of it, and they were fighting over the complete sword, an idea that was quickly abandoned in later media. It's also worth noting that He-Man (even in the comics, after some of the other more well-known elements were established) spoke in YeOldeButcheredeEnglishe from time to time, of all things. The Castle itself was presented as more of a prize that all the characters wanted to claim for themselves rather than a base of operation for He-Man. Even Skeletor was given a very different origin story - the first mini-comic explicitly states that he comes from a race of skull-faced beings from another dimension and that he wants to conquer Eternia for his people, while every portrayal of the character after [[WesternAnimation/HeManAndTheMastersOfTheUniverse2002 the 2002 reboot]] has used the story that he was originally an ordinary Eternian sorcerer whose face was burned off in an attack with an acid vial GoneHorriblyWrong.** The series bible from [[WesternAnimation/HeManAndTheMastersOfTheUniverse1983 the original show]] includes some ideas that the actual show abandoned and were never used again. Most notably, Snake Mountain was located on another planet rather than on Eternia, and Beastman, Tri-Klops, and Evil-Lyn were all astronauts from Earth.* Similar to the above, the early ''WesternAnimation/BeastWars'' bonus comics and toy biographies detailed a story that the actual TV show completely abandoned. The characters of Optimus Primal and Megatron were initially described as being new forms of the Generation 1 originals -- actually, Primal is the descendant of Optimus Prime, while Megatron simply took up G1 Megatron's name. The story would have taken place in a modern-day setting, and the Beast forms would have came from human laboratories instead of the Transformers' DNA-scanners. The personalities and stats of the characters varied, too -- for instance, Tarantulas was at first envisioned as a ninja with an intelligence stat of 4, but the show's writers changed him into a highly intelligent, if very crazy, MadScientist.\\Apart from the story, the first toys also had a bizarre feature called "mutant masks" -- basically, every bigger figure had two faces or heads: one robot-face and one based on some kind of animal (not always on the one that the toys actually transformed into). This concept was done away with when the show, due to the limitations of CGI, gave each character only one face.* The original ''Franchise/MyLittlePony'' tales were only what are now called "Earth ponies". It wasn't until Year 2 that pegasus, unicorn, and sea-ponies were introduced. Likewise, the ponies were on a sliding scale of anthropomorphic early on but [[AnthropomorphicShift eventually]] began learning toward being more humanoid.[[note]][[Franchise/MyLittlePonyGeneration4 "G4" incarnation]] or not.[[/note]]* The first three generations of Toys/BeanieBabies had much plainer designs and no cutesy poems in their tags. Generation 4 introduced the poems or birthdays, and the toys' designs started to become gradually more varied throughout generation 5 onward. It was also at this point that the fad took off in full force.